He is Risen!

Reprise of a post written in 2010. The message doesn't change...

Years ago, when I taught first and second graders in Children's Worship, one of the boys asked me about the Easter story. 

He said, "Let me see if I have this right. Jesus came to earth and was born as a baby, then He died on the cross, and He rose from the dead, and because of that I'm saved."

"Yes, that's right."

"But that doesn't make sense."

"You're right," I replied. "It doesn't make sense. God doesn't have to make sense to us. That's what makes it faith."

It's impossible for us to intellectualize God...I'm mean He's God. He is all-knowing. He created the heavens and the earth. He created us. How could we begin to intellectualize Him with our puny little brains, and our painfully limited abilty to comprehend All that He is?

It's enough to know that He loves us, and that His love for us is so great, that sent His only Son to die as a living sacrifice for us. A Son who was - in every way - a part of God.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. ~ Hebrews 11:1

Christ, the Lord, is risen today, Alleluia!

Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!

Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!

Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia!

Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!

Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!

Lo! the Sun’s eclipse is over, Alleluia!

Lo! He sets in blood no more, Alleluia!

Vain the stone, the watch, the seal, Alleluia!

Christ hath burst the gates of hell, Alleluia!

Death in vain forbids His rise, Alleluia!

Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!

Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!

Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!

Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ hath led, Alleluia!

Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!

Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!

Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

Alleluia!

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A Day for Reflection

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday and Christ's Triumphal into Jerusalem and culminates in the darkness of Good Friday.

But what about Saturday?

We have no idea what the disciples were feeling on Saturday. They must have felt inconsolable grief at the loss of their rabbi and friend, but did 10 of them also feel guilt for spending Friday in hiding while John and the women stood at the foot of the cross? Were they still totally overcome with fear for their own lives? Did they think they had been wrong for the previous 3 years? Were they beginning to question who Jesus was? Had they lost hope?

Saturday surely left them with questions, but Sunday's coming!

Sarah Reeves, "Lamb of God"

http://youtu.be/pW7UgzFG4v4

Good Friday

Simple words from a traditional spiritual to meditate on this Good Friday. Though instead of "they" perhaps we should substitute "we" since truly, all of us had a hand in the crucifixion of Christ. 

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?

Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?

Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?

Were you there when the sun refused to shine?

Were you there when the sun refused to shine?

Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when the sun refused to shine?

Were you there when they pierced him in the side?

Were you there when they pierced him in the side?

Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they pierced him in the side?

Were you there when they laid in the tomb?

Were you there when they laid in the tomb?

Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?

Maundy Thursday

I don't come from a religious tradition that is not known for being particularly demonstrative in our worship. Growing up, the closest we ever came to charismatic worship was a hearty "Amen!"

We don't (at least most of us don't) raise our hands above our waists when we sing - not that there's anything wrong with that as Seinfeld and his friends would say.

We don't dance in the aisles, although a few of us do occasionally sway to the music in our pews, provided it has a beat you could dance to if so inclined -- as long as you don't dance like Elaine Benes.

We sure as heck don't fall down in worship...although there are times when I find myself fighting the urge to do just that. The only thing that keeps me from actually doing it is the realization that people around me would assume it was a medical emergency of some sort.

The urge to fall to my knees in worship is particularly strong leading up to Easter, when I am overwhelmed by Christ's love for us.

It can be the simple words of My Jesus, I Love Thee...

I love thee because thou hast first loved me,

and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree;

I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow;

if ever I loved thee, my Jesus 'tis now.

Or the familiar poetry of When I Survey the Wondrous Cross...

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Or the haunting melody of In Christ Alone...

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

Written by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty 

(c) 2002

These are the songs that remind me of the majesty, the glory, and the amazing grace of a Christ who loves each of us so much that He chose to live and walk among us, taking on flesh, "fullness of God in helpless babe, this gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones He came to save."

These are the songs that transport me to Gethsemane...and to Calvary...and to the empty tomb.

Sunday's coming...

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Totally Clueless

Making fun of the disciples is almost too easy. Despite spending three years in close contact with Jesus, eyewitnesses to miracle after miracle, they remained totally clueless.

They saw Him drive demons out of pigs. They saw Him feed the multitudes. They saw Him walk on water. They saw Him repair broken lives by healing lepers and the lame. And not long before that fateful trip to Jerusalem, they saw Him raise His friend, Lazarus from the dead.

Despite all of that, and the times that Jesus had foretold His own death and resurrection, they must not have expected Christ to literally rise from the dead. If they had, they'd have been at the tomb Sunday morning instead of hiding out, as they had been for 3 days.

I understand. I'm often clueless about God, too. 

I get the part about nothing being impossible with God. At least part of me gets it. The other part is thinking, "it may not be impossible, but it's certainly improbable."

Is that what the disciples were thinking in their hidy hole? Did any of them say it out loud? Were they afraid to believe that God is, indeed, able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than all we can ask or imagine?

Did they think it was just hoping for too much?

Or did they ever consider the possibility that Christ could defeat death? Did they question their instincts in devoting three years to following the carpenter from Nazareth? Did they begin to wonder if they had imagined the miracles they had seen with their own eyes?

Do I do the same thing? Do I sometimes forget the times I have witnessed God work in my own life? Do I sometimes hesitate to ask because it just seems like it's more than God can do?

 

I have to confess that the answer is yes.

It's hard to make fun of the disciples when I realize I'm no better than they were.

I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief! 
Mark 9:24 (NIV)

From Cheers to Jeers

We've had a few laughs over the last few posts, but we're nearing the start of Holy Week, and it doesn't bring a lot of laughs.

Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week, when we remember Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Huge crowds gathered to welcome Christ as He entered the city on a donkey, laying their cloaks and small branches in front of Him and singing from Psalm 118, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." It was an entry so spectacular, we call it the Triumphal Entry.  

Triumphal...what a word! It's as though you can hear the shouts of "Hosanna" and see the crowds waving and filled with excitement. But Christ knew by then that the warm feelings of the crowd towards Him would not survive the week.

What was it like to know that those cheers would turn to jeers in a matter of days?

I will forever be indebted to Ken Warren, a former staff member at my church, who once preached a Palm Sunday message about what it was like to be Christ, knowing how the week would end. It changed my view of Palm Sunday forever. I no longer think of it as a high point for Jesus. Now I wonder if there was a sick feeling in the pit of His stomach as He watched the crowd from that donkey.

Ken talked about the way that we tend to dismiss Palm Sunday as a parade, a time of jubilation, separating it from the rest of the story...the part where Jesus sacrificed His own life so that we could have eternal life.

He ended his message by showing us a brief video clip of another parade that ended badly. A time when a leader entered a city, greeted by cheering crowds, only to die in that city a short time later.

If President Kennedy had known how the trip to Texas would end, would he have gone anyway? Surely not.

But that's exactly what Jesus did.


Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! ~ Philippians 2:5-9